1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing data. Still more particularly, the invention relates to priority based processing of requests in a domain name system (DNS) server.
2. Description of Related Art
In very large networks, such as the Internet, Web sites have associated domain names so that users can easily remember and identify Web site locations. For example, mydomain123.com is a domain name that a user may enter into a Web browser. The browser retrieves information contained in a remote computer associated with that domain name, such as pictures, text, videos, files, links to other Web sites, and other content.
However, the client computer cannot use the alphanumeric domain name to find a particular Internet address. Instead, the domain name must be translated into an Internet Protocol (IP) address that data processing systems can recognize and use. An example of an IP address is 123.45.67.890.
A current method of performing the translation between domain names and IP addresses is to use a domain name system (DNS) server to perform the translation. The DNS server contains a database that associates domain names with IP addresses. Thus, when a domain name is entered in a browser, the browser communicates with a DNS server and requests the IP address associated with the domain name. In turn, the DNS server transmits the appropriate IP address to the client computer running the browser. The client computer then accesses the desired website using the IP address acquired from the DNS server.
Currently, a DNS server processes domain name translation requests on a first-come, first-serve basis. However, a problem has arisen in the current domain name system. Because of the dramatic growth of the Internet, a DNS server must be able to handle a truly vast number of requests for domain name translation. Even a simple command like “netstat −r” on a machine with a large routing table can cause a reasonably large burst of DNS translation requests. The problem can be exacerbated by malicious flooding attacks, which attempt to overwhelm a DNS server with too many spurious requests for domain name translation. Thus, translation requests that are considered important are delayed or even dropped as the DNS server attempts to handle vast numbers of less important requests. Hence, it would be advantageous to have a method, data processing system, and computer-implemented instructions for managing requests for domain name translations.